Moon Rocks and Killer Kittens
by Lightening sparks
Summary: Valkyrie Cain was told not to do one thing. One simple thing. Do. Not. Touch. The. Moon. Rock. But, being a stubborn and rule defying teenager. She ignored it and said, "What's the worst thing that could happen? An explosion of kittens?" Little did she know what she had gotten into... (K )


"I hate this." Grumbled the grumpy dark haired teenager who was reluctantly following the skeleton detective.

"This?" Inquired the 400 year old skeleton, who went by the name Skulduggery Pleasant. "The forest or the walking?"

"Both, it's boring, couldn't I have stayed in the Bentley?" Asked the young sorceress, Valkyrie Cain.

"No, I don't trust you enough not to ruin the interior." Skulduggery replied. "Anyway, some fresh air won't do you any harm."

"Yes it will."

Skulduggery tilted his skull. And sighed. He mumbled something about teenagers.

"I'm seventeen." Valkyrie corrected.

"Exactly. Your young and reckless" Skulduggery said.

"I'm practically an adult."

"But technically your not..." Skulduggery said before something else grabbed his attention. "Now..." He bent back a branch, and stepped through the opening he'd created.

"Uh. Skul?" Valkyrie called.

There was no answer.

Valkyrie sighed. What was that skeleton up to now? She wondered. Valkyrie ducked under the branches. And was nearly blinded by the light that was illuminating the clearing in the forest. She brought up her hand to shield her eyes, as the light dimmed. There, in the middle of the clearing was a angular rock that had been placed on a pedestal. "Do you mind telling me if a rock is gonna blind me?" Valkyrie muttered.

"It's called the 'Luna Petram'" He answered her unspoken question.

"And that means, what exactly?" She asked as the light died down.

"The Moon Rock, it's in Latin." Skulduggery explained, "Forged by a very powerful sorceress named Luna Moon, an astronomer who was obsessed by the sheer complexion and power of the moon, she wanted to create her very own moon, and here it is. Except she gave it a power, by carving ancient symbols into it. Luna must've got them wrong because no one ever saw her again."

"And why is it in the middle of no where?" Valkyrie asked as she surveyed her surroundings.

"It's was thought too dangerous so people tried to destroy it, but found that Moon had put protection symbols on it, so instead they moved it to the middle of no where. And then made it invisible to any mortal." Skulduggery said. "It's one of the five artefacts that we were looking fact it's the 5th, the most powerful."

"Right, so we've found the 5th artefact then, all we have to do is phone the sanctuary and have them collect it." Valkyrie said.

"Yeah, I'll phone them." Skulduggery agreed and gave the Luna Rock one last look. Before fishing his phone from his pocket and striding out of the clearing. "Oh, and Val?" He called, as he popped his head back through the branches, "Don't touch the Moon Rock, for all we know Moon might've exploded."

"Sure." Valkyrie sighed and began to play with her Necromancy ring, in an attempt to keep herself occupied. So She watched as it twisted around her finger. But found her eyes drawn towards the Moon Stone... Or whatever it was called. Her mind flickered back to what Skulduggery had said, about not touching it. Being the stubborn person she was she shrugged, what harm could it do?

Valkyrie edged closer to the somewhat intimidating rock. She doubted Moon had exploded. But what if she did...? A dark thought nagged at the back of her mind.

 _Well, at least you have me! I'll piece us back together and then as a thank you, maybe you could let me fly about for a bit?_

Valkyrie felt a shiver run up her spine as Darquesse happen in the back of her head, she scrunched up her eyes to concentrate as an attempt to block her out.

 _That won't work anymore Val, it used to... But I'm growing stronger everyday..._

She shuddered. And tried to ignore Darquesse.

 _Okay, Okay... I'll be quiet, but don't you want to feel that real power again?_

Valkyrie sighed out of relief, and felt Darquesse back down into the darker corners of her mind, but she felt a part of her that itched to feel how she felt when Darquesse was in control, to feel powerful, free and invincible. Valkyrie ignored this part of her though.

She turned her attention back to the situation at hand, the Moon Rock-

Valkyrie jumped back, her hand was hovering centimetres off the surface of the tinged blue rock. A sudden anger awoke in her. Darquesse had distracted her from what was happening, and edged her forward. So that's why she backed down...

Valkyrie drew her eyes back to the Rock, there were deleicate symbols carved into the flesh of the rock. Valkyrie could tell that they weren't done by someone with as much skills as China, since the symbols weren't as fluent. Valkyrie's hand reached out as her eyes remained transfixed on the glowing intensity of the rock.

A voice snapped her out of her trance.

"The Sanctuary will be here in 25 minutes until then-" Skukduggery suddenly cut himself off, which was an unusual thing to do, seeing as he was normally so _annoyingly_ talkative. "Valkyrie, what are you doing?"

"Huh? I'm not doing anything." Valkyrie said defensively.

"Look at your hand."Skulduggery said, his skull nodding towards it.

"What about my ha-" Valkyrie cut herself off, her hand was splayed against the cold surface of the rock. "Oops." Was all she said before her, Skulduggery and the rock were engulfed in a white light.


End file.
